BLACK RAPIDS OF THE DELTA RIVER — If we climb high enough above this tumble of gray water, we can see a wedge of blue-white ice withering into the mountains.
In June of 1867 — a few months before Alaska would become part of the United States with the transfer of $7.2 million to Russia — William Healey Dall picked up a shiny black rock from a riverbank.
Now as quiet as wind whispering through grass, a plateau rising from the flats of northern Alaska was for thousands of years a lookout for ancient Alaskans.
NOGAHABARA DUNES — Karin Bodony has walked us to a sandy bowl, a place she has perhaps visited more than any other living person.
NOGAHABARA DUNES — From a molded seat of sand dug into the western rim of a 5-mile oval of desert, I’m looking out over a sea of tan waves.
